NYT Strands today: hints, spangram and answers for Tuesday, March 4

By Sam Hill and Jesse Lennox Published March 4, 2025 5:30 AM

Strands is a brand new daily puzzle from the New York Times. A trickier take on the classic word search, you’ll need a keen eye to solve this puzzle.

Like Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword, Strands can be a bit difficult to solve some days. There’s no shame in needing a little help from time to time. If you’re stuck and need to know the answers to today’s Strands puzzle, check out the solved puzzle below.

Recommended Videos

How to play Strands

You start every Strands puzzle with the goal of finding the “theme words” hidden in the grid of letters. Manipulate letters by dragging or tapping to craft words; double-tap the final letter to confirm. If you find the correct word, the letters will be highlighted blue and will no longer be selectable.

If you find a word that isn’t a theme word, it still helps! For every three non-theme words you find that are at least four letters long, you’ll get a hint — the letters of one of the theme words will be revealed and you’ll just have to unscramble it.

Every single letter on the grid is used to spell out the theme words and there is no overlap. Every letter will be used once, and only once.

Each puzzle contains one “spangram,” a special theme word (or words) that describe the puzzle’s theme and touches two opposite sides of the board. When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted yellow.

The goal should be to complete the puzzle quickly without using too many hints.

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s theme is “It’s our game-iversary!”

Here’s a hint that might help you: What are you playing?.

Today’s Strand answers

NYT

Today’s spanagram

We’ll start by giving you the spangram, which might help you figure out the theme and solve the rest of the puzzle on your own:

STRANDS

Today’s Strands answers

RIBBON
TENDRIL
WISP
FILAMENT
CURL
THREAD
STRING

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As Digital Trends' Gaming evergreen lead, Sam Hill is here to help you find your new favorite game and dive right in. The…

Gaming

All Faded Plaque puzzle solutions in Diablo 4

how long is diablo 4 diablo4 isometric barbarian

With the transition to a more open-world format for Diablo 4, there are far more things to discover as you travel across Sanctuary. In addition to the normal monsters, quests, and World Events, there are plenty of more mysterious locations to discover. Perhaps the most perplexing thing you will stumble upon is the collection of Faded Plaques. These shrines are small puzzles, but aside from a slight clue, they are very tricky to solve. If you want to know how to solve all the Faded Plaque puzzles in Diablo 4 for some easy rewards, here's how to do it.
All Faded Plaque puzzle solutions

Each Faded Plaque has a small line to clue you in on what you need to do to solve them. Depending on which clue you get, solving it will give you a different reward. Each one requires you to perform a specific emote in front of the shrine, so you can complete all of them as soon as you find them. To perform an emote, you need to press up on the D-pad if you're playing on console, or press the E key on PC to bring up the emote wheel -- just remember that not all emotes are visible at once so you may need to tab over to the other wheels to find the one you need. You can also customize which emotes are available on your primary wheel to put the ones you like or use most front and center.

Gaming

You can get Death Stranding for free right now on PC. Here’s how

Sam Porter Bridges and Fragile holding their foreheads together.

Death Stranding is currently free on PC via the Epic Games Store. Players have until May 25 to claim their copy before another mystery game is available for free.

Epic Games Store has a long history of giving out games for free. Just last month, it gave away copies of Dying Light: Enhanced Edition over Easter weekend. Death Stranding, which usually retails for $30 on Epic Games Store, is a particularly big freebie, so you'll want to make sure you claim a copy while you can.

Gaming

Resident Evil 4 lock codes: how to solve the Village Chief’s Manor combination lock puzzles

Leon Kennedy walking in the Resident Evil 4 remake.

In the world of Resident Evil 4, it isn't just the existence of viruses and parasites that turn normal people into crazed zombies that differentiates it from our own reality. In this ream, most homes and buildings don't just simply lock their doors, but secure them using obscure puzzles, such as the one you will find early on when you reach the Village Chief's Manor. This small home has two major roadblocks preventing you from moving on and pursuing your goal of finding the president's daughter. While there is a clue to the first puzzle, it is still somewhat cryptic and easy to miss, while the second is much less clear on what you're even being asked to do. Don't let these early puzzles stump you for too long -- use our help in solving the Village Chief's Manor puzzles in Resident Evil 4.
How to solve the cabinet lock puzzle

After entering the manor and dealing with a lone enemy in the bathroom, the first puzzle you need to solve is on the ground floor. Around the back of the house, down the hall with a Red Herb, is a large cabinet. The lock has three symbols you need to correctly align to open, and those symbols include things such as wheat, animals, babies, and birds. You won't be able to guess this one, so instead, you need to go up to the second floor and examine a book on a table in the hallway. This document, called "Illuminados 4:3, spells out the solution. The important part is the middle paragraph with the highlighted text that reads: "The old farmer, his finest crop./ The Slight swineherd, his stoutest pig./ The beggarly grandam, her own beloved babe."